My vicidial configuration doesn't work as it should

[kiminxoen04]

Hi
I have a vicidial multi server setup are:

1 DB/web Server and 2 Asterisk/vicidial servers

VERSION: 2.4-283
BUILD: 100929-1203
© 2010 ViciDial Group
Asterisk 1.4.35-vici-rc1
Dahdi -Current
Ubuntu 8.04 LTS

My configuration is:
auto dial level= 5.0
available only tally= y
hooper level= 500
dial time out= 60
drop call second= 5
Max VICIDIAL Trunks= 80
Max Calls per Second= 60
VICIDIAL Balance Dialing=y

We use a VOIP provider with 300 channels assigned to us.

We have among 15 and 25 agents logged in simultaneously and the problem is we are not getting enough connected calls, agents wait for 2 or 3 min until they get the next call and that is too much.

We need to improve this performance as soon as possible because we are loosing money. At this ratio we should be dropping calls, not wating for them.

Do you see what the problem is? Please give me some advise to work better.

Thanks in advanced!

[williamconley]

Vicidial does not have a "single accelerator" that you "just push" to make it go faster.

Setting all the numbers higher may not help you.

You need to find out what is happening with each of these calls.

Start by watching your CLI to see how/why calls are terminating (are you getting "congestion"?)

Also, your "calls per second" should never be higher than 1 call per second per 5 agents on THAT dialer. (ie: 2 dialers, 30 agents, 15 on each, 3 calls per second on each "server setting"). And that's the max, i'd suggest 1 call per second per 10 agents to begin.

The reason I mention it is that many carriers will AUTO-CONGEST your dialer for a few minutes every time you hit a barrier of too many calls per second (pickin' on the dialers). If you do not have permission to dial 60 calls per second, you should not be attempting to. Besides: more calls per second does not mean "more calls", but it can mean a chance at "congestion" which causes vicidial to wait 15 seconds before trying again in many circumstances, so you now have a dead call taking up "space" in your attempted call range.

Find out how your calls are being handled in the CLI before you "floor it" and try going faster than this engine can handle.

Many clients find out they have a bad list (80% numbers actually don't even exist). Many find that they have uploaded them incorrectly (many of the numbers have the wrong number of digits!). Sometimes it's even just that they go beyond 5 calls per second every few minutes and the carrier shuts them off.

[kiminxoen04]

Thank you William for your response I will take all that in consideration and let you know.

[williamconley]

Welcome to the party!

(Oh: and post your installation method next time and EVERY time post your installation method followed by your vicidial version with build as an Absolute Minimum. Like this: Vicibox 3.1.3 | Vicidial 2.4 Build 10111 as your Signature (signature is easy, click on profile, type it in, hit save ... then your system build info is ALWAYS on your posts)

[opusgamma]

Bill, thanks for the suggestions, I belive we need to take a clsoe look at our database and system configurations. Aour databse comes directly form our carrier with actvie rela phone numbers as we are invlove in a win back outbound telemarketign process for one of the nations to carriers. We have tripple check our data.. but For some reason most of our calls are asnwering machines yet if we where to dial by hand we actully get more conections with peopel thnat ussign the dialer.. This is one of the reasons i ask my IT to post. Its nto posible that hand dialling from white pages.com we get more talk time thnat with a predictive dialer.. I belive somethign is wrong with how we have it runiing.
Brenda i suggest you do print screen of all relavnat fields so the experts like Bill can take a glance and see if everythings is like it should.
Ah also how do we knwo if list has been uploaded correctly?
Albin

[williamconley]

first you'd have to define "correctly". do you mean that some are being rejected during upload? (blank phone numbers, too few digits)

do you mean impossible to dial? (if they do not match the dial patterns in use, you may actually see NO output on the CLI at all, depending on your setup, which can be confusing, so at least be sure all phone numbers entered are physically valid, with the correct number of digits matching your dial pattern).

otherwise how would it be uploaded incorrectly?

do you have "AMD" active in your system? that is an unreliable bit of (free!!) software. if so, you should consider Sangoma CPD (discuss it with The Vicidial Group, they have worked with it extensively, look up the references here in the forum, I think Matt worked on that personally).

[kiminxoen04]

The lists are uploaded correctly and yes, we use AMD. We are getting calls but not as much as we wish.
How do I post images of my configuration here?

Thank you[/img]

[williamconley]

You don't need to post images, text is more appropriate. But the general statement "not as much as we wish" is not entirely ... fixable.

If you have AMD on, have you verified the accuracy of the free AMD package? have you modified the AMD settings at all to improve them? If your AMD system is "misfiring" more than 30% of the time, your calls would likely not be as much as you wish.

The question is: Do you believe your system is mistaking humans for machines and hanging up on them? (thus reducing your call volume) or is your system not dialing out enough to keep your agents busy? or are your calls all coming in at once, dropping because you don't have enough agents, and then letting the agents sit idle for 45 seconds and starting over?

Hint please

[kiminxoen04]

I think my system is not dialing out enough to keep our agents busy.

I was not the person who installed the AMD and I don't really know how to change the settings, but I can contact that person and try that.

Thanks,

Do you have a command that you need me to copy the output here?

[williamconley]

AMD is usually installed by the Vicibox Redux Installer (if you used that for installation). Settings are left untouched by most users. Those settings can be modified in the configuration files, but are usually just modified right in the campaign settings in Vicidial. There are three lines, starting with "Answering Machine Message". Each has a (?) next to it. Read them

[kiminxoen04]

Answering Machine Message: vm-goodbye
WaitForSilence Options:
AMD Send to VM exten: N
CPD AMD Action: disable

That is what I have at the moment. Should I enable wait for silence options?
What do you think of this?

[williamconley]

I think you should push the (?) next to each one.

What "VDAD Exten" are you using on the campaign?

[kiminxoen04]

Yes, I pushed ?, and I read it, but not sure of what to enable.

My Campaign VDAD exten: 8369

[williamconley]

AMD is almost an "Art form". The best way is to test it with a group of "Known" answering machines and a mixture of human answers and check to see how often you get a correct designation. If you are prepared to test and "tweak" you can improve your detection, possibly above 80%.

But AMD and its settings are not part of Vicidial, it is a seperate package installed as a convenience (because its licensing allows it)

[prince.fer]

Hi William,

I saw in your above post that vicidial will wait for 15 sec. before dialing any calls. I want to understand from where can we reduce this timings. From code or from configuration ? Pls. help

The reason I mention it is that many carriers will AUTO-CONGEST your dialer for a few minutes every time you hit a barrier of too many calls per second (pickin' on the dialers). If you do not have permission to dial 60 calls per second, you should not be attempting to. Besides: more calls per second does not mean "more calls", but it can mean a chance at "congestion" which causes vicidial to wait 15 seconds before trying again in many circumstances, so you now have a dead call taking up "space" in your attempted call range.